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The World’s Longest and Shortest Domain Names

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Do you want to know the world’s longest and shortest domain names? Do you really want to know? If yes, then read on. I will be sharing with you the world’s longest and shortest domain names, but first, here is a brief intro for non-techies:

A domain name is a name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. These names appear as a component of a Web site’s URL, e.g. auza.com. This type of domain is also called a hostname.

This is not 'Ripley’s Believe It or Not' but since you are all eager to know what are the longest and shortest domain names in the world, I will now share them with you after this quick facts.

According to domain registrars, the longest legal domain name is 63 characters starting with a letter or number. The character count does not include the domain suffix, e.g. '.com.ph' or the URL prefix 'http://www.'.

So what domain name currently holds the record as the longest in the world? Actually, there are plenty of sites that are sharing this title at the moment. The most known among them are the following:

http://www.thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com

http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com

http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com

http://www.iamtheproudownerofthelongestlongestlongestdomainnameinthisworld.com

http://www.h-i-t-h-i-s-d-o-m-a-i-n-h-a-s-t-h-e-m-o-s-t-d-a-s-h-e-s-e-v-e-r.info


http://www.thepersonwithanewideaisacrank-untiltheideasucceeds-by-marktwain.com


Now let's go to the shortest domain name on earth.

The shortest known domain name right now was recently acquired by Google, with the purpose of making it easier for Chinese users to find Google's main site. The domain name is ‘g.cn’. Most single letter domain names are supposed to be reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). However, there are a few cases of this not being so:

Z.com owned by Nissan
Q.com owned by Qwest
X.com owned by PayPal.

Google was not allowed by IANA to buy g.com, but they got lucky and found a one letter-shorter alternative in 'g.cn'.

Any other long and short domain names?

6 comments

  1. I own m.fm, since I my initials are "FM" and my email now reads i @m fm (= I am FM).

    /FrankM

    ReplyDelete
  2. The shortest .com domain

    www.ᅟ.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. You get 63 characters. Might as well use them all

    Yeah baby!

    http://www.theabsolutelongestwebdomainnameinthewholegoddamnfuckinguniverse.com/

    No such thing as too long or too ridiculous. Not in America!

    On a serious note a long domain can be helpful for branding if the brand relies on a long name. My domain http://www.the-name-i-wanted-was-already-taken-so-i-used-a-lot-of-dashes.com/ is a good example. The name is the punchline and the blog is about branding and domains....but it's still a terrible name but that was the point.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The shortest .com Internet domains are only 2 letters. They were all registered before 1998.
    The first ones to register such a domain was
    the Technology Companies Hewlett Packard,
    Texas Instruments and General Electric
    they got hp.com, ti.com and ge.com
    for almost nothing in 1986
    when nobody knew about the Internet ...

    In 2010 DG.com (Dolce & Gabanna missed it)
    RT.com (Russia Times)
    FB.com (Face Book)
    were sold in mostly not published
    multi million dollar transactions

    The most expensive 2 letter domain sale
    was LG.com (sold in 2009 and bought by LG from a British Football millionaire that edited the football site Life Games)

    ReplyDelete
  5. In addition to your tally IN.COM and G.CO

    ReplyDelete
  6. The shortest one I know is the British Library bl.uk

    ReplyDelete